Attached for your use is a copy of the summary report which includes findings from the reviews that were held from FY 2003 through FY 2008. At this time, I would like to thank the division offices and State personnel for their time and cooperation, which made these reviews a success.

The format of the report has been revised to reflect the six areas in the regulation. The report covers both best practices and opportunities for improvement that have been identified over this 6 year period. For your convenience the additions as a result of the FY 2008 reviews to the findings portion of the report are in "green" text. Although there are always some new things that we find both positive and negative, we continue to also see some of the issues that were identified in earlier years. Since we still have not been to all of the States this information can be used to help identify potential weakness in programs and also point out some of the best practices that can be incorporated in other States.

As you are aware improving the effectiveness of materials quality assurance is a priority objective under the System Performance Objective of the FY 2010 Strategic Plan. The National Performance Measures that were developed under this objective were based on a national assessment that was performed in 2008. The assessment was a direct product of the findings from these reviews. The two measures in the strategic plan are to reduce the number of States that do not meet assessment criteria for data verification or dispute resolution and to increase the States that are taking action to address the two assessment criteria.

As indicated in the report, we are continuing the reviews in FY 2009 and beyond. Reviews have already been completed in the States of Indiana, Arizona, Hawaii, and Mississippi.

Also noted in the report is a status of the efforts that have been made to increase the amount of resources that are available to help address issues in this area. Please note NHI course 134070, web based training on SPECRISK software and risk analysis, is now available online. The SPECRISK software is being released through the web based training.

The report will be posted on both the Office of Pavement Technology and Office of Asset Management web sites in the near future. If you have any questions concerning the report or other efforts in the quality assurance area, please contact Mr. Michael Rafalowski at 202-366-1571 or Mr. Ken Jacoby at 202-366-6503.